


Strength of Body and Mind

by ExplodingHye



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 13:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/900751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExplodingHye/pseuds/ExplodingHye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During his brief time at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, encounters with two of the world's most intimidating jaeger pilots shows Dr. Geiszler that strength is not only made out of brute muscle. Though that certainly helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strength of Body and Mind

The Hong Kong Shatterdome wasn't too bad, Newton had decided.  
Besides the absence of an entire research team, lack of funding, fresh organs, and having to share a research lab with Gottlieb, it wasn't too bad, right? At least he could tinker with all of the kaiju parts he wanted for however long he wanted to.  
He'd spent a small while getting acquainted with the place before his presentation to the Marshall and his advisor, admiring the jaegers, sure, but his specimens were his best of prizes. He fiddled with his sleeves to rest comfortably at the elbows, confident that recently touched up tattoos were always the best thing to be proud of. So, allowing his eyes to dart around the elevator, he looked ahead to see who was entering. 

It was a woman, of course. But not just any woman, no no.  
Newton had seen this woman from news clips, headlines, documentaries on the Siberian coastline attacks and the Vladivostok Shatterdome. Sasha Kaidasomething: the proud, primary pilot of the Mark I jaeger… god, he knew if he were a 'jaegermeister,' as those fans were called, he knew he'd be all over Cherno Alpha's design as a favorite mech.  
The pilot up close matched her jaeger, it seemed; a cloud of impending doom and authority seemed to follow her, as if a kaiju's instincts of domination over prey had been ingrained into her psyche. Even in the elevator as she stood straight with her arms folded, she was a mighty pillar of dominance in atmosphere.  
Suddenly, her head turned.  
Suddenly, he almost pissed himself.  
She read his ID badge.  
"German?" She asked in German. A bit rusty, but still good enough.  
He was surprised, of course; when was the last time he'd properly spoken German, calling home to his parents? "Kind of," he replied. "Studied in MIT and taught at it for a good part of my life though; lost my original accent."  
"Mmn."  
She paused again, eyes darting along his forearms. Those tattoos were practically eye candy to the Russian.  
"Is that Yamarashi on your arm?"  
"Yeah, it is! How could I not put 2500 tons of awesome on me?"  
"Stunning art of the beast." She liked that idea, tattooing your defeated enemies on your body… She'd have to mention it to Aleksis later on. "How far do they go, Doctor?"  
"Full torso," he admitted with a nervous laugh.  
"The Vladivostok Shatterdome would have been proud of you. We practically had our own parlor there."  
"See I'm glad /some/ people appreciate them, Miss… Miss ah-" he stammered. Shit, how did he say her name again? Weird Slavic pronunciations, and--  
"Kaidanovsky," she boasted calmly. "Mrs. Kaidanovsky."  
"Right, sorry."  
The elevator whizzed down to a stop at the floor of one of the catwalks, the grates opening to reveal Cherno Alpha finally have being loaded onto it's docking and maintenance bay. What an interesting, strong-man sort of design; never had he really looked at the thing besides passing glances…  
This was Sasha's stop, and she strode out towards the imposing colossus' head.  
"Pleasure meeting you, Doctor. Stay strong."  
"Yeah…"  
He would have said 'you too,' but that was kind of implied with what being a jaeger pilot was.  
And a Russian one at that.

\----

"GET BACK HERE!"  
Nooope he wasn't having any of that.  
Newton practically slid to turn down the rusty hallway, the bag over his shoulder jostling as the scientist ran as fast as he could. Two technicians straight from the neural maintenance room followed close behind, inevitably gaining speed on the gasping Newton.  
All he wanted were a few used neural handshake testing parts; nothing too big! And he'd asked at least a dozen times, too; he wasn't a complete criminal and this was a legitimate experiment! What made these people so stingy!?  
A hand finally caught his shoulder and whipped him around, a very angry, balding technician breathing heavily.  
"The hell is wrong with you, nimrod!? What are you doing with this crap anyway, huh?! We need this in ca--"  
"Look I'm sure you guys have a /very/ good reason for having this stockpiled and I don't doubt that and I am not at /all/ a nimrod thank you but come on, just let me--"  
"No, you idiot; do you have any know how dangerous this is?" the man fumed, the other scientist taking the bag and going through to see what Newton stole. "The fact that you're even /running/ with it should be a clear enough sign; I what on earth is… hey, I'm talking to you, 'groupie!'"  
"Gerard--"  
The sound of two additional, approaching footsteps had interested Newton's attention more than these two did.  
The figures now loomed behind the two, having padded up behind the man that held Newton by the collar. His colleague tapped him on the shoulder, murmuring his name quietly.  
"Gerard--!"  
"What is it, Ja--… uh…"

Newton didn't believe in God.  
But in this moment, he certainly /did/ believe in two giant, blonde, Russian angels who had approached from the other side of the hallway at Sasha's suggestion after watching for a bit.  
"Privet, gentlemen."  
Aleksis suddenly took the two men by the collar, his massive fists curled with the fabric and his rings pressing into their chests.  
"Never a good thing when scientists fight amongst each other in the last days of war, really… care to explain this?"  
"T-this groupie- he came in and- stole our stuff, Leiutenant--"  
"Did he ask to use it before he stole it?"  
"Yes?"  
"And?"  
"W-we can't let him have that; who knows what he'd do with it--"  
Sasha gave a small nod to her husband, whose grip tightened on their collar.  
"Tell us something, technician. Your station is here for a reason, yes?"  
The one who had taken the bag nodded. "Of course--!"  
"And you're both doing everything in your goddamned power to make sure we pilots are prepared for combat, yes?"  
"Y-yes--"  
"So this scientist has different goals than you… but who are you to stop him?"  
"Well yeah, but--!"  
The ends of her lips curled upward.  
"'But' what, hmm?"  
The grip on their shirts tightened again as Aleksis' jaw firmed even more.  
"F-fine, fine! He can have it; just don't have anyone blaming us when we have some idiot groupie dead in a lab with blood spewing out of his nose!"  
"Good. Thank you."  
There was a pause.  
A flicker of a glance was exchanged between the husband and wife.  
And a ringed, left hook of Sasha's swiftly socked the man in the face as Newt flinched from the sound of the blow.  
"AUGH--!"  
"Theeere we go. Ooo look; your face looks like a stamp-pad."  
Aleksis dropped the two men's collars, both pathetically scrambling away as the one held his face with blood dribbling from a newly cracked lip. 

Newton finally got over the initial shock of actually watching these two in action, respect overriding the instinct to quake in his shoes as he gaped between them and the fleeing technicians.  
"I-I ah-- wow, thanks a bunch, you guys are--"  
"No need," the woman crooned, a small grin cracking as she watched the punched man knock a passerby's shoulder at the end of the hall while shaking out her fist. "Take whatever you want from them."  
"Yeah definitely, I…"  
He was about to continue, but his brow furrowed a bit as he looked to her. At Newton's expression, her own features turned puzzled as she looked to him. "What?"  
"You ah, you got a- thing under your…"  
He tapped a hand to under his nose. At this, her expression widened in knowledge and Aleksis looked down to her, Sasha dabbing her decorated, lithe fingers to the place he indicated as she felt a familiar, warm liquid.  
A bright tint of red had stained her fingertips when she pulled them back, just as bright as the lipstick she wore.  
She set her jaw a bit and retained a stoic expression, balling her fist and ducking away as fatigue crept upon her.  
"Excuse me."  
Aleksis followed her like a shadow, of course.  
"…Ahh-"  
Should he follow them? Where in the hell else was he going to go right this second? Sure he carried a bag full of delicate bits and pieces of machinery to use for a thrown-together neural bridge, but someone experiencing a biological abnormality?  
And that someone having just saved him from a royal ass kicking? 

The Kaidanovskys were already halfway down the hall before Newton's mind clicked to have him skitter after them. "Hey, wait a second--"  
Aleksis nor Sasha looked back, as they rounded a corner for a unisex bathroom. Very quiet chattering in Russian was exchanged, Newton just catching a glimpse of Aleksis' massive hand reach into his pocket and give her a small tin, nodding as she vanished behind the door. He stood outside of it and leaned against the wall, giving a quiet sigh through his great nose as his eyes caught the lanky man.  
Oh shit; he was alone with /him/ now!? She'd been intimidating enough, but the husband was a completely different story, Newton about 99.99% sure that he'd wrestled bears by the time he was 12.  
And won.  
Newton, unsure whether or not to leave with his overstuffed tote bag, motioned a thumb at the door. "Is she ah- is she gonna be all right, or--"  
Aleksis merely replied with a nod of the head and brow, a hand running through his hair and down his beard. He made no point to say whether to leave or stay, so Newton settled for a comfortable distance against the wall away from Aleksis.  
A /very/ comfortable distance away. 

Silence hung heavy in the air between the two men, the pipes from the walls rumbling to indicate the faucet was running.  
Newton pursed his lips.  
He opened his mouth… then closed it again.  
Then opened it again.  
This happened a few more times before he nervously played at his sleeves. "Look I can go if you want, I just wanted to thank you both properly and not look like too much of an asshole and just walk away or anything-…"  
Aleksis looked down to him with those dark, thin eyes, sighing again through his nose as a cough came from inside. "Sasha is seven years older than me," the man rumbled. "She piloted Cherno Alpha before I there. Before they put, ah… good radiation protection inside…" he paused, trying to find the right word. English was never his strong suit. "Engine. Head." 

That was all the answer Newton needed. Realization struck him heavy like a brick, his eyes casting down for a moment before a light swallow.  
Another cough came from the bathroom.  
"And now?"  
Aleksis shrugged, fiddling with a tin of his own as he popped a pill. "Is much better shielding now. Though not perfect. We just take pills and kaiju lymph node extract. But she is strong, and all world needs her to be strong. Needs /me/ to be strong. I need to be strong for wife."  
They were simple words, but they impacted Newton wholly and immensely. Radiation poisoning was a common worry in this age what with the jaegers, kaiju, and bombs, but he'd never lived with it himself. Sure, he'd seen the posters advertising for radiation tests and cancer screenings with products promising reduced symptoms. Hell, even he had to take an irradiation test before coming into contact with most of his kaiju samples. But to even imagine a loved one passing from it, or even being a ticking time bomb yourself…  
To pilot a jaeger for six years. To have slain something like the beast that was immortalized on his right arm and to have kept doing it year after year of patrol…  
A lack of words overcame the scientist, so he opted to continue his silence to lean against the door.  
At least they took lymph node extract. That was something that actually /did/ work instead of rob you like a highway con man.

Not three minutes later, the woman emerged, her lipstick reapplied and all traces of blood and water wiped clean from her face. She gave an acknowledging grin to Aleksis with a subtle glance to promise they'll talk later, but her thought process was interrupted when she saw Newton standing beside him. She simply puffed out her chest and pushed a hair back behind her hair, coming to face him directly.  
God, why was her stare so intense? Why did this woman have to have eyes that burned like acid!?  
"Be strong for yourself, Doctor. Because one day you'll have to face giants alone, and your victory is only as certain as your own will."  
She gave a small grin with a squint of the eyes.  
"You're off to a good start with those sleeves."  
Inspiring words and all, but Newton could have sworn he was going into cardiac arrest.  
After a glance up to her husband, she started out, and they began drifting down the hallway again, to where Gipsy Danger was being revved for her first test run. Newton managed to peel himself away from the wall, running a hand through his frazzled hair and looking to his forearms. Were they friends now to him, were they those distant relatives no one ever talks about?  
God, they had nice jackets.

...What was he doing again?  
Oh yeah, being Tony Stark and building a neural link out of a box of scraps.

\-------- 

The kaiju alarm blared throughout the Shatterdome, the piece of paper that the Marshall had given him tucked safely into his pocket as his hand fluttered frantically at his side. When he breathed he would smell the iron of blood and his eye ached terribly, but he had to do what he had to do. He had to find this man, this Hannibal, Fannibal, whatever, and get this brain. Did they even have the type they would need, would they even be able to give him a fully intact one?  
The pause of the elevator pulled him out his thought process, looking up for a brief moment to see who entered and-- oh you've got to be kidding. 

His eyes bogged open at seeing the Kaidanovskys in their full armor. He'd seen pieces of it when he was rummaging through equipment in the other departments, but seeing it disassembled and on its owner were two vastly different things. His mouth hung open a bit as they glid into the elevator as Sasha gave him a collected nod of the head, Newton nodding back frantically.  
"Off somewhere, Doctor?"  
He jumped a bit. "Y-yeah, I gotta go- I gotta go get some stuff from-- no not just stuff, it's stuff for the Marshall for an experiment through some not-so-nice-kaiju black market in the weird part of town, and sorry I'm a bit jumpy but--"  
Sasha turned her head to him with a cocked eyebrow. Obviously, he'd been… experimenting, what with the caked blood under his nose and hemorrhaged eye. Newton hushed suddenly as the woman stared to him… then turned back to her husband, chirping something quietly in Russian. He shook his head in response. Her expression changed as if she'd remembered something and, pulling her pill tin from a small storage compartment in her thigh armor, opened it, and gave him a single ruble with a pink piece of paper that was sprawled in very official-looking Russian documenting.  
"If you are going to 'not-so-nice-kaiju dealers… do us a favor. Pick us up our 'prescriptions?'" She asked with a teasing grin. "Give this to whoever. They'll respond."  
He took the paper and ruble with a shuddering jaw, nodding frantically as he stuffed it inside his coat pocket. "Y-yeah, for sure, yeah… w-what's the ruble for?"  
"Insurance~."  
As she said the words, the elevator slid to a stop on one of the higher entry decks, the level to board Cherno Alpha. Sasha was out first after Aleksis, the two not even looking back as Newton was left alone in the elevator. He watched the titans proceed down the catwalk, offering his hand up and calling out:  
"Good luck!"  
Those guys, Newt… he thought to himself.  
Those guys are rockstars.

\-----

Victory had been achieved, the calamity of war had been stopped. The Shatterdome roared with the cry of victory over the destruction of the breach, ever man and woman celebrating the triumph of the human race. Newton had never been happier to drape his arm around Gottlieb's shoulder and his shoe accidentally bump the Brit's cane, his entire spirit fluttering despite the dull, ebbing pain of a forced Kaiju drift.  
He nudged Gottlieb playfully in the side when a small lump was felt in his battered coat's pocket, Gottlieb's face contorting into confusion.  
"What was that?"  
Memory flooded Newton's mind. "Oh, that's right-- when I was with Chau I managed to run a favor for someone, and I--"  
"Who for?" Gottlieb interrupted.  
"The Kaidanav, Kaidehnahv-- the ah, Russian pilots," Newton proclaimed. "Where are they, anyway? I'm assuming Cherno's down for repairs since it's not out in the… you're giving me a face, Hermann; what… happened…"  
The allowed joy that had skated onto Hermann's face was washed away, his lips turning tight again as he looked down to the floor and craned his neck. "Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon are not in repairs, Newton. …Nor are any of their pilots."  
Newton's face went solemn in a heartbeat. His lips hung open and his tired eyes dashed about on the floor, trying to search for the right words. No more would he be terrified of the giants from the north, no more would the Hong Kong Shatterdome see the bright red lipstick and brilliant blonde heads of hair, no more would Russia receive her pilots to come home from war as heroes… He was about to open his mouth and ask a million questions regarding how, when, all sorts, until a vision lapsed in his memory.  
 _Be strong for yourself, doctor._  
Without a word, he pulled out the sealed bag of kaiju lymph node pills, and a small, wet, crumpled ruble stuck to the bottom of the ziploc.  
"Guess if it was good enough for them, they'll be good enough for me."  
"Pills?"  
He looked to Herman with a peaceful, but worn smile. "We all gotta get stronger somehow, dude."


End file.
